A quick note from an occasional reader (but regular admirer) - I
read this story as a parent of a 4-year-old and as a pastor in a
church in small-town south central New Hampshire who works with the
church's youth group regularly. Parents in our town are petrified
by what they hear from their kids (and, occasionally, the police)
about drugs, alcohol, and sex in our high school. Sure seems to me
like that particular can of worms is already open, for most
American high-schoolers; it's got to be healthy to open up space in
classrooms, with the right teachers, to talk about it a little -
possibly with the added safety of having the conversation be about
the characters' poor judgment, rather than your peers'. What really
strikes me here is that it seems like these parents are applying a
concept of "children," and of how to treat "children," that seems
totally inappropriate. A, as many have pointed out, trying to keep
things away from children strangely does not make the children less
interested in what you are trying to hide. B, teenagers aren't
exactly children. Treating them as little kids by assuming they
can't think critically about what they read only makes the adult
world seem more distant and less trustworthy...
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